4ZZZ are one of seven metropolitan licensed community radio stations in Brisbane who collectively have access to 2/9ths of the multiplexes they share with commercial broadcasters due to Government legislation. With two multiplexes in Brisbane it means seven community broadcasters share the equivalent of four commercial entitlements. Each entitlement being 256 kbps means four stations can broadcast with 64 kbps each and three stations can broadcast 85 kbps (because services cannot be split across multiplexes). So 4ZZZ or any other community radio couldn't possibly offer a simulcast service on top of a new service without compromising audio quality and the text and image services DAB+ provides opportunities for.

As a community broadcaster 4ZZZ have a remit to broadcast for and by the community. By establishing a different service (ZedDigital) on DAB+ 4ZZZ are providing more opportunities for their community to have a voice in the media. Yes, this isn't the best business practice, but it is best outcome for the community they serve.

Sounds like a great little radio James and the choice of a whip antenna is useful as its not always convenient to have buds or headphones plugged in. A word of warning tho - if considering taking the radio to a live sporting event, you will need to listen to any commentary on FM not DAB+ as the up to 20 second latency with DAB+ will put you behind the game - not at the game!

The current listeners that use traditional listening devices tend to be those who are not technically savvy, that is they do not know how to use modern devices to listen to radio. These people tend to be among the older group of listeners who listen to radio via the tradition "wireless" set hence the higher ratings for talkback radio
There are so many different avenues that stream various radio transmissions it is near impossible to gauge the number of listeners.
An example is my wife who listens to Neil Mitchell on 3AW every day via our ISP's forward stream. That Stream is counted as one listener even though there may be a number of listeners tuned to that stream. This also applies to all stream forwarding services.
Measuring the total number of actual listeners would require a radically new monitoring method which, unfortunately, would be also be extremely expensive and maybe never possible.

This is great news - EXCEPT, the most alarming thing is the graph showing the % of population coverage. It shows Australia has made barely any progress between 2013 - 2017!!! Going from 63% to 65% - and this would be just because of the increase in % of the population living in the 5 metro areas.

ROLL OUT TO REGIONAL AREAS NOW!

How on earth can it be taking so long? How on earth is DAB+ not on air in Gold Coast and Newcastle?

Not to take away from the successes, but it did help regional commercial radio that the ABC sacked most of its long-serving, experienced and trusted Regional Content Managers and replaced the established talk/entertainment format with a news-based reporting format that talks AT the listener rather than having a conversation with them.